Travel

Tell us: Should Logan Airport be renamed for Celtics legend Bill Russell?

Share your thoughts.

By Kristi Palma

June 19, 2024

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Days before the Celtics claimed the record-setting 18th NBA championship title, The Atlantic posed this thought: Boston should rename its airport for Bill Russell.

“It’s high time the city properly recognized its greatest sports champion, a civil-rights hero who endured horrific racism during his time with the Celtics,” wrote Mark Leibovich, A Boston native, in The Atlantic.

Do you think Logan Airport should be renamed for the late Boston Celtics basketball player and coach?

The basketball legend, who died in 2022, won 11 NBA championships with the Celtics and was the first Black head coach in the NBA. He is “the greatest defensive center in basketball history,” according to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, and “turned the Boston Celtics into a powerful machine that overwhelmed opponents both defensively and offensively.”

As for turning Logan International Airport into Bill Russell International Airport, Mass. officials don’t rule it out, according to Commonwealth Beacon.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said, “I’m up for conversations” about honoring Russell, reported Commonwealth Beacon. “Bill Russell is the greatest athlete of any sport, of all time. And so we know we have not reached what we need to do in terms of really recognizing that legacy and how important that is, and how proud we are in Boston.”

A statue of Russell was added to City Hall Plaza in 2013.

Logan Airport is named after Boston native Gen. Edward Lawrence Logan, who fought in the Spanish-American war and retired as a lieutenant general. The Harvard Law School graduate also served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Massachusetts Senate, and was a judge in the South Boston District Court.

Let us know if you think the airport should be renamed by filling out the survey below or e-mailing us at [email protected], and we may feature your response in a future article. 

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